I go to a gym where we have semi-private training sessions. There are never more than 6 people in a group. Yesterday, we had four people. The goal is to get your brain to use muscles it has forgotten about. Our trainer, Theresa Adams Ford, the owner of Fitness Level 10, was asking us to do something I had never done before. I tried it and failed, and immediately thought I can't do this, this is hard. I tried again and failed, tried again and failed. Theresa stopped us and told us to make it easy. She told us to say,  "this is easy" and then make it easy. I said "this is easy" out loud and thought to myself, "make it easy". I did it!!  What changed? My mindset. My brain engaged with the muscles because I allowed it to. I did it over and over again. In fact, I did it every time I tried! In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he talks about an experiment performed by some Japanese Researchers who blindfolded a group of students and told...

Being an entrepreneur requires focus and energy. The best way to achieve energy and mental clarity is through a daily exercise routine. Exercise is not an easy habit to develop. We all know that it is good for us, but it is difficult to get started and even to continue once we start the habit. Here are some tips that will help you. 1. Prepare the night before by laying out your workout clothes or sleeping in them. 2. Get to bed early enough to get 7-8 hours of sleep. 3. As you are laying in bed, repeat to yourself several times. “I will get up when the alarm goes off no matter what” This means that even if you didn’t sleep well, it is raining or cold outside or you are just too tired, you will get up. No matter what!!  No excuses!! No snooze button!! 4. As you are falling asleep, visualize over and over the alarm going off, you reaching over and turning it off, getting out of bed, washing your face, drinking a glass of warm water, brushing your t...

Boxes – most of us are metaphorically put in boxes our whole life. Sometimes we put ourselves in those boxes, other times people put us in boxes. We are often told how to behave, act and think. At our office meeting, I drew boxes on the white board and had people name things that would go into a box. They came up with things like:   Religion, relationships, how to clean, how to dress, speech, work, driving, manners, school, etc.   We then talked about how some people like to be put in a box so that they know exactly what is expected of them. It makes them feel safe. Others don’t like to be put in a box because it makes them feel trapped or doesn’t allow for the creativity they crave. I tend to be someone that doesn’t like to be put in a box. However, if I build my own box, then I am okay being in the box. I feel like these are the best boxes for everyone. We need to know what we want our boxes to look like, and feel like. If we are comfortable in our box, we will th...

It starts with a phone call . . . We have a 15 year-old girl who was sexually abused by her mom’s boyfriend while her mom took video of it. We have an 18 month-old little girl who is being released from the hospital but is blind and has brain damage because her dad shook her so hard. We have a newborn boy who is being taken into custody because his older brother was beaten so badly by his dad that he was killed. We have a newborn girl who was born meth addicted and is having severe withdrawal symptoms These are examples of phone calls I have gotten as a foster mom asking if I would be willing to take these children into my home and love them as my own with the understanding that the primary goal is to return them to their parents. I loved each of these children, but I got very angry when I thought of the damage that was done to them at the hands of those that are supposed to protect them. I tried so hard to love the parents also, and to understand the...

Another spin class life lesson.  While spinning, the trainer yells out, "Do you like to be chased and in the lead of other bikes or do you like to be the one chasing to push you to pass them up.  Whichever it is, get that in your head and push harder!"  It was an easy answer for me.  I prefer to be the one in the lead, so I imagined them coming up on me - hearing their heavy breathing and pushed harder to get a bigger lead. Does this apply to the way I run my business? In many ways it does.  While I don't tend to compete with others in this business, I definitely compete with myself.  Each year I set a goal of how many transactions I wish to close.  I like to have a big lead in the first and second quarters so that I don't have to push so hard in the last quarters.  If I reach my goal in the first three months, then it motivates me to push harder to see how far over the goal I can go. In other aspects, when I see others exceeding my sales, ...

"Stay in the Saddle" is what my spin coach yelled to our group.  She continued on to say how sitting in the saddle is the hardest thing we do sometimes and how we want to get up into 3rd position (standing while riding) so badly when it starts to get hard.  "Fight the urge to go into 3rd.  Stay in the saddle.  You came here for a reason - don't take the easy way out, push, push, push." We need constant encouragement so that we don't jump up into 3rd position. For me, sitting in the saddle is very difficult - in spin class and in life.  I need to be moving around. I chose a job that allows me to get out of the office and look at houses with my clients, attend closings, prospect face-to-face, etc.  I do not do well in the "saddle" for long periods of time.  What I have found, however, is that I need to be stuck in the "saddle" at the office every now and then to be able to get more clients.  It is crucial that I am active on social m...

My 22 year-old son recently ran his first marathon in St. George, Utah.  It is a difficult marathon - one of the qualifying marathons for the Boston Marathon.  He started out so excited, and the energy in the air at the starting line was exhilarating.  He started out the marathon strong, but only two miles into the 26.2 miles, his knee started hurting and continued to get worse.  He pushed, and tried to keep up the pace in spite of the pain.  He listened to motivating music and focused on forward movement.  He was really struggling at the 13 mile mark and was getting tired of people passing him.  He decided that the next person who tried to pass him would be his pace setter.  It happened to be a woman named Kristen.  He ran with Kristen for the next 6 miles.  They talked to each other to distract them from the pain and motivated each other along the way.  At around mile 19, my son realized he couldn’t keep up with her any more...

I love spin class.  It is beneficial for me physically, emotionally and spiritually.  It is extremely therapeutic.  Over the next few blogs, I will use what I learn in spin class and apply it to business.  Today while I was spinning, the instructor yelled to us over loud music, “Do you see these empty bikes?  You decided to show up today.  Someone else decided to sleep in.  You are already one step ahead of them.”   The real estate market has been difficult over the past several years.  While business is improving, it is still not as easy as it was 10 years ago when pretty much anyone could buy a home because lenders gave money freely.  I doubt we will ever see that kind of market again, and I am grateful.  While I enjoyed the ease of the transaction and, of course, the financial benefit, I did not have to push myself to be successful like I have over the past several years.  I have learned so much more about the industr...